Telephone booth



March 20, 1945. e. R. LUM

TELEPHONE BOOTH Filed Sept. 19, 1942 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 "7/6 IHiii mu mFIGS

INVENTOR 6. R LUM WdGAVKfi Qd ATTORNEK March 20; 1945. e. R. LUM

TELEPHONE BOOTH- Filed Sept, 19, 1942 2 Sheets-Shee t 2 FIGJ,

Afro/war Paten ted Mar. 20,1945

UNITED v UPPER 1. f I

"2;s71,9ss-

TELEPHONEBQOTH "George It; Loin, New'York; N. Y., assign'orto BellTelephone Laboratories,

Incorporated, New

Yorln N. Y a c'or-poration of New York Application September 19, 134aSerial No. 459.005

- 3 Claims- (Cl. 189-2) invention relates to telephone booths.

It is the present practice to mount thecoin collector telephoneequipment on one of theinner walls of the booth such a manner that theequipment is infull view andthereforeaccessible to the public. 7 Thusvandalsor persons bent on malicious mischief can more readily steal,damage or-destroy the same.

It is the primary object of my invention: to

render it more diflicult for the general public 0 to have access to thetelephone equipment, except those parts. of it they must use.

It is a further object of my invention to improve the appearance'of theinterior of the booth by the very means employed to prevent vandals fromdamaging the apparatus .or stealing it. My invention consists broadly inso'disposing the pieces of apparatus in the booth structure that onlythose parts thereof which .must be operated by the subscribers areaccessible to them,

all the rest of theequipment. or parts thereof being concealed andtherefore protected.

The telephone booth. to which the present invention is particularly welladapted may consist of a base, a rear wall, a left side wall, a rightside .25

wall, a plurality of corner posts, a ceiling and roof unit supported bythe walls and the corner posts and a'door of folding sections hinged toone of the corner posts which forms the entrance of the booth.

In the present embodiment of my inventiom the telephone apparatus, whichis in the form of a'coin collector box, is supported by a combinedbracket and shelf-secured at the intersection of the left side and rearwall ofthe booth, the coin collector box being provided with asupporting cradle element extending through an opening in a concealingplate which extends from the left wall to the rear wall for receiving .atelephone handset in parallel relation to such plate. Just, 4 I

below this opening an opening is provided in the concealing platethrough which projects the coin refund receptacle of the coin box. Abovethe cradle element opening and in line therewith is an opening in theconcealing plate through which projects the regular automatic dial whichis secured to the coin collector equipment. Above and in line with thedial is another opening in the concealing plate through which extendthree coin deposit passages which are a part of the coin collector box.Just above and in line with the coin passages is an opening in theconcealing plate through which light is projected downwardly from aconcealed lighting the booth.

' stream of air generated by the ,fan in a general direction of theperson using the booth.

Another feature is the mountingof a writing shelf adjacent the telephoneapparatus and ya compartment carried by the plate for receiving-awriting pad.

; Another feature is the mounting of the sea-trot the telephonebooth onthe :right side wall of the booth in a convenient position relative to,'thewriting shelf. 4

Another featureis the hinging of the booth door to the left corner postat the entrance of the .booth :so as to be more easily and conveneientl'y operated from the interior of the booth while increasing thefree usable floor space of the booth by the particular location of theshelf and the seat in the booth.

other novel features and advantages of the invention will appear fromthe following descrip-;

tion and by the clairnsa pended thereto, reference being had to-theaccompanying drawings-in which:

I Fig.1 1 is an assembly view of the booth shown in perspective; I

2 is a cross sectional view taken on line 2 2 of Fig. 1.;

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view of the, upper portion of the boothtaken on line 3-3 ofEig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a vertical sectional view of the upper portion of the boothtaken on [line 4 40i :2; and I Y 5 is a view similar to that of Fig. 3with the concealingplate removed.

.Asshown in Figs. land 2 of the drawings, the telephone booth embodyingthis invention may consist oftwo side Walls. WI, W2 and a rear wall W3,a" ceiling C, a roof R, holding corner posts Bl, P2, P3 and P4 inassembled relation to each other at their upper ends, while a base Bholds the corner posts Pl, P2, P3 and P4 in assembled relation at theirlower disposed ends, a door or folding section SI and S2 being hinged tothe left disposed corner posts PI at the entrance of In accordance withthis invention, a shelf l0 and a bracket ll best seen in Figs. 2, 4 and'5 which may be formed singly or in combination into a unit structureare secured diagonally at the intersection of side wall WI and rear wallW3 as by a plurality of screws l2 and I3, respectively. The bracket IIis provided for mounting a telephone apparatus in the form of a coincollector box I4 having provision for receiving a calling dial I5, acradle I6 for receiving a telephone handset I1 and a coin chute elementI8.

To the side wall WI and to the rear Wall W3 in vertical alignment withthe coin collector box I4 is mounted a triangularly shaped plate I'IXforming with wall WI, W3 and ceiling C a casing for housing a fan Fshown in Figs. 2 and 4 secured to the wall WI and ceiling C in a mannerto position its armature shaft in line parallel with the triangularplate UK. The triangular plate is formed with a pair of arms I9 and2llprovided for secur ing this plate to the walls WI and W3 as by a numberof screws 2I in addition to a pair of lugs 22 and 23 and screw 24 alsoengaging the walls WI and W3, the arms I9 and 20 in turn serving forsecuring a lighting fixture in the form of downwardly extending arms 25and 26 supporting the light bulb 21.

The rectangularly shaped concealing plate 28 is provided along itsparallel longitudinally disposed edges with flange portions 30Xbest seenin Fig. 2 serving for securing this plate in booth walls is WI and W3 bya number of screws 32, while the top edge of plate 28 is secured to theceiling C bya plurality of screws 29 and its longer edge to the writingshelf III by a plurality of screws 30 best seen-in Fig. 4.

The plate 28 at its top portion is provided with a series of parallellydisposed horizontal slits 33 serving as air paths from the fan F to theinterior of the booth in addition to an opening OP formed between a hoodelement-H formed or carried by the plate 28 and closed by a translucentoblong glass plate 34 disposed adjacent the bulb 21 of the lightingfixture and in vertical alignment with the calling dial I so as toproject the maximum amount of light on the dial to facilitate itsoperation, while lighting the coin deposit passages o-r apertures 38, 39and 40 cooperating with the chute element I8. The calling dial I 5extends through an opening 3| in the plate 28, a small distance above aninstruction card 35 in a frame 36 in turn secured to the plate 28. Thecoin return chute 31 formed or carried by the coin collector box I4extends through an opening in the plate 28 adjacent the writing shelfand a casing 4| carried by the plate 28 serves as a container for apaper pad 42 shown in Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4.

According to applicants invention a seat 43 is secured along itslongitudinal edge to the right side wall W2 of the booth and issupported in the horizontal position by a diagonally disposed bracket44. The applicant discovered that the mounting of the telephoneapparatus to the rear left corner of the booth and'the seat 43 to theright side of the booth, considerably facilitated the use of the writingshelf III while making possible the hinging of the door sections SI ands2 to the left corner post PI to facilitate the operation of this doorfrom the interior of the booth while increasing the amount of usablespace by the improved location of the telephone apparatus, the writingshelf, the seat, the folding door and the accessibility of the handsetand writing pad relative to the person using the telephone booth.

It is understood that minor changes may be made in the invention withoutdeparting from the scope of the appended claims,

What is claimed is:

1. A telephone booth comprising a housing for a plurality of removableunits including a dial coin collector set having a coin chute and a handtelephone supported on a cradle element projecting outwardly from theset, and a partition extending diagonally across one corner of saidhousing for concealing said units from the user and having cooperatingopenings in line with the coin chute of said set and other openingsthrough which said dial and cradle element project to render themaccessible for use.

2. A telephone booth comprising a housing for a plurality of unitsincluding an electric fan, a lighting fixture and a dial coin collectorset having a coin chute and a cradle for the support of a hand telephoneprojecting outwardly from the set; all of said units being mounted in aline adjacent the junction of two walls of said housing, and a diagonalpartition secured to said walls concealing said units from the user,said partition having cooperating openings adjacent said fan, lightingfixture and the coin. chute of said set and other openings through whichsaid dial and cradle extend to enable operation thereof by the user.

3. A telephone booth comprising a housing for a plurality of unitsconsisting of an electric fan, a lighting fixture and a dial coincollector set having a coin chute and a cradle for the support of a handtelephone projecting outwardly from the set, all of said units beingmounted in a line adjacent the junction of two walls of said housing, awriting shelf secured to said two walls, a

openings for the extension of said dial and cradle for accessibility tothe user, and a triangular sloping shield mounted between said fan andlighting fixture and supporting said fixture, said partition also havinga rectangular hood portion forming a transverse opening for directingillumination downwardly from said lighting fixture to the coin openingsand dial.

GEORGE R. LUM.

